Wisconsin court rules that primary can proceed today
MADISON, WIS. » Voters in Wisconsin will likely face a choice today of participating in a presidential primary election or heeding warnings from public health officials to stay away from large crowds during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday ordered the election back on, hours after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers issued an executive order postponing it for two months. That was part of a last-ditch effort by Evers to stop in-person voting today out of concerns about putting poll workers and voters at risk of being exposed to COVID-19.
The court ruled 4-2, with four conservatives in support and two liberals against, that Evers lacked the authority to move the election on his own. Evers had previously opposed moving the election and said he didn’t have the authority to shift the timing unilaterally. But he changed course Monday, ordering a delay of in-person voting to June 9, as poll sites closed because nervous volunteers were unwilling to staff them and as criticism about holding the election grew.
The governor said his order was the last hope for stopping the election, and he had no immediate comment after the ruling about any other possible legal challenges.
“There’s not a Plan B. There’s not a Plan C,” Evers said earlier Monday.
The Wisconsin election is being viewed as a national test case in a broader fight over voter access in the age of the coronavirus with major implications for the presidential primary contests ahead — and, possibly, the November general election. Many other states pushed their primaries back as the coronavirus swept across the nation.
Later Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a plan to extend absentee voting in Wisconsin’s spring primary by six days because of the coronavirus. Republicans had asked the court to throw out a lower court’s order extending absentee voting to April 13. The justices split 5-4, with the five Republicanappointed justices siding with national and Wisconsin Republicans to prohibit the expanded absentee voting.
At the presidential level, Joe Biden already has a commanding delegate lead over Bernie Sanders, and the Wisconsin results aren’t likely to dampen his march to the Democratic nomination. But the tumult in one of the most critical general election battlegrounds underscored the challenge of voting during a pandemic when public health officials are discouraging groups from gathering for virtually any reason to prevent the spread of the virus.
Evers himself had questioned whether he had the power to reschedule the election, but said the worsening situation, including an increase in COVID-19 deaths from 56 on Friday to 77 on Monday, made it clear there was no way to safely move forward. Evers said he was motivated by protecting public health, not politics.